Intel should fear ARM... Not?

ARM has a stronghold in the smartphone and tablet market. ARM can do so due to its low power rating (improves battery life, decreases the need for cooling the device, etc)

Intel has a stronghold in the laptop, PC, and enterprise market.

ARM has started to encroach on Intel's space in the laptop and enterprise market.

Is Intel doomed?

Perhaps not :

That's Why Amazon Added "Accelerated"

The power charger for the Amazon Kindle HD is sold separately. And interestingly, it is  being touted being "Accelerated". This caused me to scratch my head a bit. Perhaps Amazon wanted to emphasize that although the Kindle HD can be charged through a laptop USB port, it will be very SLOW. Pay up $20 to speed up the charging.

Well, with Google's Nexus tablet out, which included a charger, now I see why Amazon wants to make sure that Nexus buyers know that the Amazon charges for a power adapter, but it is way better than the one included with Nexus.

The New 99 Cents

Fast food trains have found that $0.99 is a terrific way to draw customers to your door. Once there, the predictable "up sale" occurs - customers buy other items such as drinks, etc. Fast food chain like Wendy's also created / followed the $0.99 menu, in reaction or causing reactions from Burger King and McDonald's.

But as the focus on revenue growth continues, the $0.99 menu was unsustainable or hampering growth. The power of $0.99 can't be ignored, though. How do you rectify? A bean counter will probably and predictably do this:

   1. decrease the number of items available on the $0.99 menu to force buyers to buy high priced items
   2. decrease the serving size of the items available on the $0.99 menu to force them to buy MORE $0.99 items
   3. price creep original $0.99 items to $1.29, but add lower cost replacement items to $0.99

If Wendy's did this unilaterally devaluing the $0.99 menu, they will lose business to Burger King and McDonald's. Somehow with a little game theory, Burger King and/or McDonald's started the first move to reduce the $0.99 menu. With that first move, Wendy's followed as well.

                               Wendy's

                           |  Devalue     | Don't
     M    ---------+------------+-----------

      c      Devalue |  5   5           | 7   2
      D    ---------+------------+-----------
             Don't     |   2   7          | 1    1 


So if McDonald's devalue their $0.99 meal unilaterally (make it less attractive), Wendy's will benefit at (7,2). But Wendy's will be selling lots of cheap $0.99 burgers - not really helpful to profit. With the same pressure as McDonald's on profit, Wendy's will also devalue their $0.99 menu, and bringing it to the (5,5) equilibrium.


Net result is high profits for Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's.